Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
WHAT WE’RE ALL SAYING FIONA PARKER Trump class war fails US students THE ISSUE
Donald Trump boasted he would have run into the Florida school massacre to help, even if unarmed, while also calling for some teachers to be armed. You are dismayed by Trump’s response to the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas School which killed 17...
Donald Trump’s call to arm US teachers strikes me as so misguided as to be risible. Firstly, it would make teachers the first target of a gunman and, secondly, what if a teacher fired and hit a student instead of the gunman?
What level of ‘collateral damage’ would be acceptable to Trump on the one hand, and parents on the other?
Also, how many teachers will truly be able calmly to aim and pull the trigger when it comes to the crunch in a situation of panic and confusion? This has to be one of the most ill-conceived ideas yet from Trump’s mouth.
Trying to turn classrooms into battlegrounds is about as mad as it gets. Surely American children deserve better than this?
Keith Longmore, Ashwellthorpe Northants
So, Donald Trump says he would have run into the school during the shootings to help people (Mirror, Feb 27). Does anyone really believe him? I doubt it. He also had over £22million given to him by the pro-gun NRA to fight his election campaign and believes that arming teachers and dealing with people suffering from mental health issues will solve the problem – but said nothing at all about gun control.
Mick Streets Chesterfield, Derbys
So, Donald Trump says in order to prevent more school shooting incidents they should arrange for teachers to carry concealed weapons and teach them how to use them. So what happens when a hacked-off teacher pulls out his gun and starts firing at the children? It’s sad and alarming that Trump actually thinks this is a solution. Is he then advocating that everyone should carry a gun? God only knows where that could lead – carnage.
Pam Crouzieres, Basingstoke, Hants For the first time, I believe Donald Trump is absolutely right when he identifies the true problem behind America’s school shootings as mental health. I would like to offer a simple solution – anyone who feels the need to buy an assault rifle automatically proves themselves to be mentally ill and is therefore disqualified from buying one.
At the same time, anyone who suggests that the answer to the problem is to have teachers trained as vigilantes for a good old shootout, is also clearly mentally unstable, and therefore unfit to hold the office of president.
Mike Brown
Wolverhampton Donald Trump never fails to dismay me. Any student out to kill would see armed teachers as their first targets.
It’s interesting to note that the five million members of the National Rifle Association represent only about 1.5% of the 323million Americans. Isn’t it about time they realise they’re outnumbered?
Geoff Willmetts
Bridgwater, Somerset
The NRA sees the Florida 17 and previous mass shootings just as collateral damage. And with Trump, his family and Republicans in the NRA pocket, the killings will continue.
Alan Baber, Weston-supermare, N Somerset
What a hypocrite Trump is calling a policeman a coward (Mirror, February 24). Surely this is not the same brave, flag-waving American who avoided conscription during the Vietnam war?
Arthur Poole Macclesfield Cheshire